Sunday, November 28, 2010

The great tax scam

I was thinking about how the Bush era slogan justifying tax cuts for billionaires was something like "a rising tide lifts all boats." But as I pointed out at DetNews, in reality, when the tide only lifts the big yachts, the little boats sink under their wake. As this old chart illustrates, the empirical evidence is so clear, the best times for the working class have been when the tax rates on the wealthy have been high.

Meanwhile, Thom Hartmann chronciles how the well connected wealth holders have so successfully sold the lie. It reminds of the workplaces I've toiled in. Just as there are some people who will put more energy into getting out of doing any work than it would take to do a good job, the wealth holders spend many millions to save a few million on taxes. In both cases, the greater good would be served by doing the right thing, but I guess some people just can't feel like "winners" unless they cause other people to lose.

Have to wonder if we aren't really in the end times when greed and sociopathy are admired while empathy and honesty are not only reviled, but punished by the inadequately educated masses.

11 Comments:

Can't afford to rapture, sorry. You and Krugman are sounding a bit depressed, something that happens when consantly suggesting folks act rationally goes unheeded. Hope we all get some really good news soon.

I'm been prattling about the results of drastic upper bracket cuts for years, but I've not seen it in graphic form. Sure makes something obvious: lower it below 50% and you get a bubble that soon bursts and you spend years getting the bubble gum out of your beard.

No it doesn't trickle down, it percolates up. No it doesn't create jobs, pay for itself or boost the economy, what it did this time once again is cause the greatest redistribution of wealth in our history - straight from your pocket to my yacht. Sorry.

On the average, the economy has done better under Democrats and worse under Republicans, but they've always got their scapegoats, their excuses and plenty of blowhards from Detroit to be the cheering section for our self-immolation team.

So Coolidge, who was supposed to represent "the genius of the average" ingeniously slashed taxes, caused the 20's to roar and lit the fuse for the bomb that was the 1929 collapse. He hated regulation of markets to.

Reaganites still think he was the man and tried hard to emulate his gross mistakes while pinning the blame on Roosevelt for causing a depression that got him elected three years into it.

Yep, it sure as hell does repeat itself. The truth fades away, but the bullshit never dies.

Where did Spencer get her degree in Economics? Come on Fogg, you like to belittle others for posting a civil answer with a personal attack (probably to compensate for that tiny wang-dang-doddle) on their education. Get with the program. Ask this uneducated old loser that same questions. She failed in life and now moans about the taxes others pay? How about you? As the most intelligent carbon based life form on the planet and rich to boot, why don't you start ponying up 91% of your income voluntarily?

Well - it's Saint Anonymous of Mt. Palmer again -- and guess what? He's still obsessed with my penis and still claiming he's making polite, informed and intelligent conversation. You know, I can swear I hear the Village People in the background when I read his shit.

I have to wonder what audience he's playing to, since no one is quite dumb enough to think he can convince me I'm not me, but seriously -- who gives a shit in the first place? and I have fun forwarding his proclamations to friends.

You'll have long since noticed that he hasn't presented a single bit of data to support any particular economic picture or challenge any facts or figures, just comical sleaze and drooling slander - and of course genitals. I mean you can just tell you're in the presence of the Quality. Must be an Oxford man, no? OK, maybe YMCA.

I'd also like to remind our chief economist here, that a top bracket does not apply to one's entire adjusted gross. He doesn't seem to know what that means because I haven't heard anyone say anything that staggeringly ignorant since Joe the Plumber.

Since we gave the Mayo Clinic half a million two years ago for dementia research in memory of my late mother, perhaps Dr. Detroit here may eventually benefit? Would that be ironic, or what?

No Fogg, I don't fantasize about your lack of manhood. It is your issue to deal with. I don't fantasize about shooting those I disagree with politically or have a desire to skewer them, that is your demented desire. The fact that you have such desires is a clear indication that you are very sick. You should seek professional help in dealing with them. Might help you deal with the fact that you are sad excuse for a man with a lot of delusions.

ah, the "professional help" trope. Big in the late 50's along with the sick,sick,sick thing and you're still not doing anything but ad hominem, are you? You're not making any points about the numbers above are you? and why is that? Shall we guess?

So how long do you think it will take you to convince people who have known me for a long time that I resemble the strange little thing you put together in your basement? Think somehow the wax will melt off my yacht and my big house on the ocean will collapse under the weight of your trenchant wit and leave me in tears of envy for your glorious rust belt, mortgage and paycheck life? My God - you think I'm delusional?

Don't forget, you need to pose as intelligent and educated here and so proving the opposite as you continue to do isn't helping. Maybe you need a professional ghost writer?

You're evading having to make an intelligent comment about anything written here. What better evidence that you cannot rise to it can we have when you never do rise to it?

But every post is about my dick -- dick, dick, dick, dick, like some demented Monty Python spam parody and there is never anything more. Think any respect is due you for any reason? Think again. Think no one is laughing about your pathetic pretensions? You're the undocumented alien here, Jose - not me. Show me your fucking papers.

But thanks once more for providing these little gems. I print them and bring them to the club for happy hour. Yucks galore. There's only one way to end the laughter - say something smart, to the point and worth reading.